Raymond Moretti began his artistic work in the studios de la Victorine in Nice. Gradually, he created an incredible, protean, evolving sculpture-architecture, which Joseph Kessel christened Le Monstre.

Moretti then decided to move to the capital in the early 70s, taking his Monstre with him. It was to be a veritable expedition. The work was temporarily exhibited in one of the Baltard pavilions in the Halles district, before moving permanently to an impressive 1,000 m² cavern in La Défense in 1973.

Since then, Le Monstre has resided in the dens of La Défense, and its development continued until the death of its master on June 3, 2005.

Invisible to the general public, Paris La Défense, as part of its project to enhance the value of its works of art, is considering an alternative way of making it accessible to all, under conditions of security that are not yet met by the current configuration of the site.

Raymond Moretti, born in Nice in 1931 of Italian parents, illustrated the front page of Magazine Littéraire for over twenty years, before taking up painting at an early age.

At the age of sixteen, he produced his first work, Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Law, which was acquired by the Jerusalem University Museum. His paintings evoke the Holocaust in Cris du monde, a series of twelve oil paintings exhibited at the Tel Aviv Museum.

With his friend Jean Cocteau, he paints gouaches and an oil. He meets Pablo Picasso, with whom he forges a close friendship. A man of passion, especially for jazz and La Défense, where he lives and creates. In La Défense, Raymond Moretti also created a work of art, Pendule, installed in the Quatre Temps shopping center, but which was removed when the site was restored. In the La Défense district, he also covered an air vent with a work of art, Le Moretti.
He passed away on June 3, 2005.